60% started Geralt’s journey. Only 22% finished it.

Steam achievement unlock rates for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt story milestones (snapshot). Each bar represents 100% of players. Purple = reached this milestone | Gray = partial journey. Later bars look ‘incomplete’ because many players haven’t reached them yet—not because data is missing.

January 2026 SWD challenge visualization showing The Witcher 3 player progression through achievement data. Demonstrates partial data as behavioral incompleteness: 60% started, only 22% finished. Stacked bars reveal how incomplete journeys differ from missing data.

Challenge

This month’s challenge invites you to thoughtfully present partial data to ensure the information is interpreted correctly.

Additional information can be found HERE

Visualization

Figure 1: Stacked bar chart showing Steam achievement unlock rates for The Witcher 3’s eight story milestones. Each bar represents 100% of players. Purple segments show players who reached each milestone; gray segments show those who didn’t. The first milestone (Tutorial Complete) shows 60.7% reached, while the final milestone (Game Complete) shows only 22.2% reached—a 38.5 percentage point drop. The purple segments visibly shrink from left to right, demonstrating that most player journeys are partial: many started but didn’t finish.

Steps to Create this Graphic

1. Load Packages & Setup

```{r}
#| label: load

if (!require("pacman")) install.packages("pacman")
pacman::p_load(
  dplyr,
  readr,
  tidyr,
  stringr,
  ggplot2,
  ggtext,
  showtext,
  janitor,
  scales,
  glue
)

### |- figure size ---- 
camcorder::gg_record(
  dir    = here::here("temp_plots"),
  device = "png",
  width  = 12,
  height = 8,
  units  = "in",
  dpi    = 320
)

# Source utility functions
suppressMessages(source(here::here("R/utils/fonts.R")))
source(here::here("R/utils/social_icons.R"))
source(here::here("R/utils/image_utils.R"))
source(here::here("R/themes/base_theme.R"))
```

2. Read in the Data

```{r}
#| label: read

df <- read_csv(
  here::here("data/SWDchallenge/2026/witcher_story_progression.csv"),
  show_col_types = FALSE
)

### |- Data Source ----
# Primary Source: Steam Community - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Global Achievement Statistics
# URL: https://steamcommunity.com/stats/292030/achievements
# Date Accessed: January 1, 2026
# Game: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt Red, 2015)
# Steam App ID: 292030
```

3. Examine the Data

```{r}
#| label: examine
#| include: true
#| eval: true
#| results: 'hide'
#| warning: false

glimpse(df)
skimr::skim_without_charts(df) 
```

4. Tidy Data

```{r}
#| label: tidy

witcher_df <- df |>
  clean_names() |>
  mutate(
    milestone = row_number(),
    milestone_label = case_when(
      milestone == 1 ~ "Tutorial\nComplete",
      milestone == 2 ~ "First Major\nQuest",
      milestone == 3 ~ "Mid-Game\nQuest #1",
      milestone == 4 ~ "Mid-Game\nQuest #2",
      milestone == 5 ~ "Mid-Game\nQuest #3",
      milestone == 6 ~ "Late-Game\nQuest",
      milestone == 7 ~ "Near\nEnd",
      milestone == 8 ~ "Game\nComplete",
      TRUE ~ achievement_name
    ),
    reached = pct_unlocked / 100,
    not_yet = 1 - reached
  )

plot_df <- witcher_df |>
  select(milestone, milestone_label, achievement_name, reached, not_yet) |>
  pivot_longer(
    cols = c(reached, not_yet),
    names_to = "status",
    values_to = "share"
  ) |>
  mutate(
    status = factor(
      status,
      levels = c("reached", "not_yet"),
      labels = c("Reached this milestone", "Did not reach (partial journey)")
    )
  )

start_pct <- witcher_df |> slice(1) |> pull(reached)
finish_pct <- witcher_df |> slice(8) |> pull(reached)
drop_pp <- (start_pct - finish_pct) * 100
```

5. Visualization Parameters

```{r}
#| label: params

### |-  plot aesthetics ----
colors <- get_theme_colors(
  palette = list(
    col_reached = "#473472",   
    col_partial = "#D3D3D3",   
    col_white   = "white"
  )
)

### |-  titles and caption ----
title_text <- "60% started Geralt's journey. Only 22% finished it."

subtitle_text <- glue(
  "Steam achievement unlock rates for <i>The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt</i> story milestones (snapshot). ",
  "Each bar represents <b>100% of players</b>.<br>",
  "<span style='color:#473472'><b>Purple = reached this milestone</b></span> | ",
  "<span style='color:#999999'><b>Gray = partial journey</b></span>. ",
  "Later bars look 'incomplete' because many players haven't reached them yet—",
  "not because data is missing."
)

caption_text <- create_swd_caption(
  year = 2026,
  month = "Jan",
  source_text = "Steam Community achievement statistics (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, appID 292030)"
)

### |-  fonts ----
setup_fonts()
fonts <- get_font_families()

### |-  plot theme ----
# Start with base theme
base_theme <- create_base_theme(colors)

# Add weekly-specific theme elements
weekly_theme <- extend_weekly_theme(
  base_theme,
  theme(
    # Text styling
    plot.title = element_text(
      face = "bold", family = fonts$title, size = rel(1.4),
      color = colors$palette$title, margin = margin(b = 10), hjust = 0
    ),
    plot.subtitle = element_text(
      family = fonts$subtitle, lineheight = 1.2,
      color = colors$palette$subtitle, size = rel(0.9), margin = margin(b = 20), hjust = 0
    ),
    
    ## Grid
    panel.grid = element_blank(),
    panel.grid.major.x = element_blank(),
    panel.grid.major.y = element_blank(),
    panel.grid.minor.x = element_blank(),
    panel.grid.minor.y = element_blank(),
    
    # Axes
    axis.title.x =  element_text(size = rel(0.9), color = "gray30", margin = margin(t = 20)),
    axis.title.y = element_text(size = rel(0.9), color = "gray30",  margin = margin(r = 20)),
    axis.text = element_text(color = "gray30"),
    # axis.text.y = element_text(size = rel(0.95)),
    axis.ticks = element_blank(),
    
    # Facets
    strip.background = element_rect(fill = "gray95", color = NA),
    strip.text = element_text(
      face = "bold",
      color = "gray20",
      size = rel(1),
      margin = margin(t = 8, b = 8)
    ),
    panel.spacing = unit(2, "lines"),
    
    # Legend elements
    legend.position = "right",
    legend.title = element_text(
      family = fonts$subtitle,
      color = colors$palette$text, size = rel(0.8), face = "bold"
    ),
    legend.text = element_text(
      family = fonts$tsubtitle,
      color = colors$palette$text, size = rel(0.7)
    ),
    legend.margin = margin(t = 0, r = 0, b = 0, l = 10),
    
    # Plot margin
    plot.margin = margin(10, 20, 10, 20)
  )
)

# Set theme
theme_set(weekly_theme)
```

6. Plot

```{r}
#| label: plot

p <- ggplot(plot_df, aes(x = milestone, y = share, fill = status)) +

  # Geoms
  geom_col(width = 0.78, color = "grey55", linewidth = 0.4) +
  geom_label(
    data = witcher_df |> filter(milestone == 1),
    aes(x = milestone, y = 0.42, label = percent(reached, accuracy = 0.1)),
    inherit.aes = FALSE,
    fill = colors$palette$col_reached,
    color = "white",
    label.size = 0,
    size = 4,
    fontface = "bold",
    label.padding = unit(0.25, "lines")
  ) +
  geom_label(
    data = witcher_df |> filter(milestone == 8),
    aes(x = milestone, y = 0.82, label = percent(reached, accuracy = 0.1)),
    inherit.aes = FALSE,
    fill = colors$palette$col_reached,
    color = "white",
    label.size = 0,
    size = 4,
    fontface = "bold",
    label.padding = unit(0.65, "lines")
  ) +

  # Annotate
  annotate(
    "text",
    x = 1, y = 1.045, label = "Started",
    color = colors$palette$col_reached, fontface = "bold", size = 3.9, hjust = 0.5
  ) +
  annotate(
    "text",
    x = 8, y = 1.045, label = "Finished",
    color = colors$palette$col_reached, fontface = "bold", size = 3.9, hjust = 0.5
  ) +
  annotate(
    "segment",
    x = 1.25, xend = 7.75, y = 1.02, yend = 1.02,
    linewidth = 0.35, color = "grey55",
    arrow = arrow(ends = "both", type = "closed", length = unit(0.12, "inches"))
  ) +
  annotate(
    "text",
    x = 4.5, y = 1.055,
    label = glue("{round(drop_pp, 1)} percentage point drop"),
    size = 3.6, color = "grey45", fontface = "italic", hjust = 0.5
  ) +
  annotate(
    "label",
    x = 8.6, y = 0.63,
    label = "Partial journeys (not missing data)\nMost players stopped before finishing.",
    hjust = 0, vjust = 1,
    size = 3.4, color = "grey20",
    fill = "white", label.size = 0.25, label.r = unit(0.18, "lines"),
    label.padding = unit(0.35, "lines")
  ) +

  # Scales
  scale_x_continuous(
    breaks = 1:8,
    labels = witcher_df$milestone_label,
    expand = expansion(mult = c(0.04, 0.08))
  ) +
  scale_y_continuous(
    labels = percent_format(accuracy = 1),
    limits = c(0, 1.08),
    expand = expansion(mult = c(0, 0))
  ) +
  scale_fill_manual(
    values = c(
      "Reached this milestone" = colors$palette$col_reached,
      "Did not reach (partial journey)" = colors$palette$col_partial
    ),
    breaks = c("Reached this milestone", "Did not reach (partial journey)")
  ) +
  coord_cartesian(clip = "off") +

  # Labs
  labs(
    title = title_text,
    subtitle = subtitle_text,
    x = "Story progression milestones",
    y = "Share of players",
    fill = NULL,
    caption = caption_text
  ) +

  # Theme
  theme(
    plot.title = element_markdown(
      size = rel(2),
      family = fonts$title,
      face = "bold",
      color = colors$title,
      lineheight = 1.15,
      margin = margin(t = 5, b = 5)
    ),
    plot.subtitle = element_markdown(
      size = rel(0.8),
      family = fonts$subtitle,
      color = alpha(colors$subtitle, 0.88),
      lineheight = 1.3,
      margin = margin(t = 5, b = 20)
    ),
    plot.caption = element_markdown(
      size = rel(0.65),
      family = fonts$subtitle,
      color = colors$caption,
      hjust = 0,
      lineheight = 1.4,
      margin = margin(t = 20, b = 5)
    ),
    legend.position.inside = c(0.12, 0.92),
    legend.justification = c(0, 1),
    legend.key.spacing.y = unit(0.3, "cm"),
    legend.key.height = unit(0.8, "lines"),
    legend.key.width = unit(1.2, "lines"),
    legend.text = element_text(size = rel(0.7)),
    legend.margin = margin(r = 10),
  )
```

7. Save

```{r}
#| label: save

### |-  plot image ----  
save_plot(
  p, 
  type = 'swd', 
  year = 2026, 
  month = 01, 
  width  = 12,
  height = 8,
  )
```

8. Session Info

Expand for Session Info

R version 4.4.1 (2024-06-14 ucrt)
Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64
Running under: Windows 11 x64 (build 26100)

Matrix products: default


locale:
[1] LC_COLLATE=English_United States.utf8 
[2] LC_CTYPE=English_United States.utf8   
[3] LC_MONETARY=English_United States.utf8
[4] LC_NUMERIC=C                          
[5] LC_TIME=English_United States.utf8    

time zone: America/La_Paz
tzcode source: internal

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices datasets  utils     methods   base     

other attached packages:
 [1] here_1.0.1     glue_1.8.0     scales_1.3.0   janitor_2.2.0  showtext_0.9-7
 [6] showtextdb_3.0 sysfonts_0.8.9 ggtext_0.1.2   ggplot2_3.5.1  stringr_1.5.1 
[11] tidyr_1.3.1    readr_2.1.5    dplyr_1.1.4    pacman_0.5.1  

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
 [1] gtable_0.3.6      xfun_0.49         htmlwidgets_1.6.4 tzdb_0.5.0       
 [5] vctrs_0.6.5       tools_4.4.0       generics_0.1.3    curl_6.0.0       
 [9] parallel_4.4.0    gifski_1.32.0-1   tibble_3.2.1      fansi_1.0.6      
[13] pkgconfig_2.0.3   skimr_2.1.5       lifecycle_1.0.4   farver_2.1.2     
[17] compiler_4.4.0    textshaping_0.4.0 munsell_0.5.1     repr_1.1.7       
[21] codetools_0.2-20  snakecase_0.11.1  htmltools_0.5.8.1 yaml_2.3.10      
[25] pillar_1.9.0      crayon_1.5.3      camcorder_0.1.0   magick_2.8.5     
[29] commonmark_1.9.2  tidyselect_1.2.1  digest_0.6.37     stringi_1.8.4    
[33] purrr_1.0.2       labeling_0.4.3    rsvg_2.6.1        rprojroot_2.0.4  
[37] fastmap_1.2.0     grid_4.4.0        colorspace_2.1-1  cli_3.6.4        
[41] magrittr_2.0.3    base64enc_0.1-3   utf8_1.2.4        withr_3.0.2      
[45] bit64_4.5.2       lubridate_1.9.3   timechange_0.3.0  rmarkdown_2.29   
[49] bit_4.5.0         ragg_1.3.3        hms_1.1.3         evaluate_1.0.1   
[53] knitr_1.49        markdown_1.13     rlang_1.1.6       gridtext_0.1.5   
[57] Rcpp_1.0.13-1     xml2_1.3.6        renv_1.0.3        svglite_2.1.3    
[61] rstudioapi_0.17.1 vroom_1.6.5       jsonlite_1.8.9    R6_2.5.1         
[65] systemfonts_1.1.0

9. GitHub Repository

Expand for GitHub Repo

The complete code for this analysis is available in swd_2026_01.qmd. For the full repository, click here.

10. References

Expand for References

SWD Challenge:

• Storytelling with Data: January 2026 - Plot Partial Information

Data Source:

• Steam Community. (2026). The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Global Achievement Statistics. Retrieved January 1, 2026, from https://steamcommunity.com/stats/292030/achievements

Game Information:

• CD Projekt Red. (2015). The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt [Video game]. Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/292030/
• Witcher Wiki: The Witcher 3 Achievements

Supporting References:

• Steam Community Guide: The Witcher 3 - 100% Achievement Guide (for understanding achievement progression and validation)
• TrueAchievements.com: The Witcher 3 Achievement Data (cross-reference)

Data Details:

• Steam App ID: 292030
• Date Accessed: January 1, 2026
• Data represents cumulative achievement unlock percentages from game launch (May 2015) through January 2026
• Sample size: Millions of Steam players (exact number not publicly disclosed)

11. Custom Functions Documentation

📦 Custom Helper Functions

This analysis uses custom functions from my personal module library for efficiency and consistency across projects.

Functions Used:

• fonts.R: setup_fonts(), get_font_families() - Font management with showtext
• social_icons.R: create_social_caption() - Generates formatted social media captions
• image_utils.R: save_plot() - Consistent plot saving with naming conventions
• base_theme.R: create_base_theme(), extend_weekly_theme(), get_theme_colors() - Custom ggplot2 themes

Why custom functions?
These utilities standardize theming, fonts, and output across all my data visualizations. The core analysis (data tidying and visualization logic) uses only standard tidyverse packages.

Source Code:
View all custom functions → GitHub: R/utils